There are times when silence is golden, and the past few years have been something like that. Were there significant insights gained during these past few years? Absolutely. But the busyness of work and family life has taken away the joy of putting those thoughts into written text. Hence the online silence of this blog.
Spiritually, there has been a lot of insight gleaned personally and corporately, as a family. The chief of which is that God is gracious to His children and allows them to go through life on earth as a type of trial that all true believers must go through. The “wilderness” living is real – one that most entrenched in a particular religious system tend to miss out. It is very dangerous to be perpetually living in an echo chamber with those who espouse the same religious belief system – why? It puts you into a comfort zone of your own making, and fixes your system (interpretation, convictions) as absolute. Thus, one can live within their own bubble, unaware of how to interact with others. The end result is always dominion of man-made rules and laws that chains one to intolerance, pride and selfishness; using God’s Word as a cudgel and a control mechanism to flex a person’s own views. Certainly there is a difference between core fundamental values that cannot be compromised – but these are not about the core belief system – but an overarching system that brings one into a system no different than the Pharisees of the Lord Jesus’ time.
On the subject of the “world” and “work” – the pandemic and the post-pandemic landscape has challenged the rules and regulations of many man-made belief systems. We see it with the whole Work From Home movement, there was an unconditional acceptance of the ability for most office-work to be done from home, some with even greater productivity. But with it also came the inevitable backlash of it when the world is forced to go back to what it was, pre-pandemic. The biggest perceived challenge as the world is waking up from the crushing pandemic blow: economic recession and downturn globally. Retrenchment is not uncommon at the moment – it is affecting nearly all industry; very few are resilient against this. Coupled with a worldwide inflation, we have a recipe of uneasiness that is affecting the bottom and middle class around the world.
Something I have observed recently is the ever increasing “harshness” and “emotive” responses in people. This is likely due to the restraint that had to be shown during a prolonged period of isolation, but it is disturbing – particularly on the road – people seem to be rushing and not caring about people around them. Thus, in the virtual world this observation holds. Social media and the World Wide Web is a huge pot of negativity – people are constantly portraying two extremes – “fake goodness” or “unrestrained anger”. Logic does not matter – diplomacy is no longer valued – rationale is seen as irrational: the key thing is – do you join them in what they are espousing. This is disturbing because in the span of a few years – we WILL see a real clash of worldviews, whether it is political, religious, environmental, cultural, etc. With the way things are going – it will most certainly end in violence – physical violence.
In the midst of all these things – it is so easy to give in to dissent, and join the mass of voices “fighting” for their own beliefs. Which is why it is better to just be silent. Noise will always be there, but it is our own decision whether to add to the noise, or to just move away from it. This blog has always been focused on dispensing thoughts that would help my own two sons, when they come of age, and value the ramblings of their “old man” – to have something to think about (not necessarily agree on).
Am I back at blogging? Perhaps.